Deeplinks Blog posts about Bloggers' Rights

Should a company be allowed to use its own contractual fine print to take away its customers’ free speech? What fundamental rights should not be waivable?

We’ve written in the past about companies putting clauses in their form contracts that ostensibly forbid customers from posting online reviews of those companies’ products and services. Members of the Maryland House of Delegates have introduced a bill (MD H.B. 131) seeking to end the practice in Maryland. The bill’s sponsors are Dels. Jeff Waldstreicher, David Moon, Benjamin Kramer, and C.T. Wilson.

Thailand, after the 2014 coup by the Royal Thai Armed Forces unseated its democratic government, sits a disturbing gray area with regard to the due process and the rule of law. While martial law was, in theory, revoked last week, and ordinary governance restored, the military are still clearly in charge, and the current junta still expressly reserve the right to intervene at will. As with the last coup, the current dictatorship has taken advantage of its powers to prepare or pass statutes that will persist, even when (or if) full democratic rule is restored. Among the barrage of laws passed were modifications to Thai copyright and computer crime law. Curiously, a detailed examination of the changes shows among the expected set of restrictions on online freedoms, some positive improvements: that is, if the junta and future Thai governments can be trusted to follow their own rules.

Our right to express opinions online—for instance, to criticize copyright trolls and their demands for money in hopes of scaring them away—are protected by the First Amendment. The Georgia Supreme Court correctly underscored these protections in a ruling late last week about the state’s anti-stalking law. The panel overturned a trial judge’s astonishing order directing a website owner to remove all statements about a poet and motivational speaker who had a sideline business of demanding thousands of dollars from anyone who posted her prose online—a practice that had sparked plenty of criticism on the web.

U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay sentenced Barrett Brown this morning to 63 months in federal prison, minus the 31 months he has already served to date. He was also ordered to pay $890,000 in restitution. EFF is disappointed to see that Brown wasn’t released today, after having spent nearly three years in prison on charges stemming from his work as an independent journalist.

Increased regulation of online political speech may also undermine two goals of campaign finance reform: protecting freedom of political speech and expanding political participation. As we explain in our comments: